Zefiro, a supplier of sustainably made household products, offers an assortment that ranges from items such as cotton mesh produce bags, reusable silicone food wraps, cleaning tools and toothbrushes made of bamboo and sisal.

Waterlogic, a global designer, manufacturer, distributor and service provider of purified drinking water dispensers, has closed on the acquisition of a significant minority stake in the company by four institutional investors— BCI, Neuberger Berman, StepStone and Skandia.

Fourteen housewares suppliers ranging from well-established brands to first-time exhibitors have been honored as Global Honorees of the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) for product design. The Global Honorees in each of 14 categories, including a new sustainability category, were revealed during a live-streamed presentation.

A study of 1,000 consumers conducted by market research firm Kearney on March 6 as the 50th anniversary Earth Day approached indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has not made consumers forget about the environment.

Events like the COVID-19 pandemic won’t cause current mega trends to disappear, but there will be a number of shifts in consumer attitudes and behaviors to watch for, Kate Usher, trend consultant for Trend Bible, told the International Housewares Association.

In an effort to bring more awareness to the growing crisis around single-use plastic, Stasher, a manufacturer of reusable silicone storage bags, has launched a new marketing campaign titled “Save What Matters.”

According to The NPD Group, U.S. dollar sales of small appliances grew 4% in 2019, and sales of non-electric housewares increased 2% versus 2018, with the combined growth amounting to an additional $952 million in sales across the industry.

In conjunction with the National Retail Federation’s Big Show, IBM released a study on global consumer trends demonstrating the importance of brand purpose and suggesting that purpose surpasses cost and convenience for today’s shoppers.

Stop & Shop will power 40 of its stores in Massachusetts and New York with Bloom Energy servers. The servers will provide clean, reliable, 24/7 electricity in a microgrid configuration that will continue to power each store in the event of a grid power outage, the company said.

Sustainability is gaining more momentum, and this is reflected in Ambiente’s new Ethical Style Guide. The curated directory for 2020 features 340 exhibitors from 49 countries, all of them manufacturers who follow eco-friendly and socially responsible production standards.

Current Issue

Editor-in-Chief Peter Giannetti previews this week’s 2020 Retail Champions edition, an adaptation of the long-running HomeWorld Business Retailer Of The Year issue. This special report details how six key retailers— Amazon, Walmart, Target, Costco, Home Depot and Kroger— are positioned to lead the post-COVID rebuild of what is expected to be a dramatically realigned retail landscape.
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